DVDs on a Pocket PC

by Shawn F.

In this article you will learn how to put a DVD movie on a Pocket PC.

The basis for the ratios and settings in this article were formed by using the Pocket PC 2002 O.S on an iPAQ 1910.  The numbers should work for all systems that run Pocket PC 2002.

As of now the largest SD flash card is 256 MB.  Usually I get my movies down to 233 or 234 MB, from a little over a gig.  I encoded all of my movies and keep them on my computer, switching movies as I see fit.  The theory is my computer is like the mother ship, and my Pocket PC is a smaller ship that needs to dock.  In doing so it erases old movies off its SD memory card, which makes room for different movies of my choice.  This is great to have for a plane trip or a day at the beach.

In the Spring 2003 issue of 2600, there was an article titled "Ripping Movies from DVD to CD-R" on how to burn DVDs to CDR.  One could use two of the three programs from that article.  We're only going to use one - I'll explain why later.  The programs you will need are all free.

First you will need a media player for your Pocket PC.  I use DIVX (www.projectmayo.com), SmartRipper (use Google to find), DVD2AVI (www.divx-digest.com), and TMPGEnc (www.tmpgenc.net).

Insert the chosen DVD into your DVD drive.  Play the DVD with any type of media player (PowerDVD, etc.).  Click on SmartRipper while the movie is playing and watch the magic happen.  SmartRipper will copy the DVD onto your computer as "VOB" files.  This will take a little bit of time depending on your computer.

After the VOB files are on your computer you will need to use DVD2AVI.  There are many other programs you could use such as DVDX, but I like DVD2AVI because I'm a little anal-retentive.

Little things bother me and with DVD2AVI I can choose the setting for a really good movie quality, have that particular movie encoded in a folder on the desktop into an AVI and a WAV file giving me the "recipe" to make and tweak that movie as I see fit as many times as I like.  I can keep the WAV and AVI files and get rid of those VOB files.

You now should have VOB files in the particular place you chose to save them:

Open DVD2AVI:

File > Open > (Navigate to the folder that contains the VOB1 file) > Open

Once you choose VOB1 it knows to add the rest of them.  If you do not use this version you may need to add them manually by simply clicking the ADD button.  Click OK.

Select:

Video > iDCT Algorithm > 32-bit SSE MMX

Video > Field Operation > None

Video > Color Space > YUV 4:2:2

Video > YUV -> RGB > PC Scale

Audio > Track Number > Track 1  (Because it's usually English)

Audio > Channel Format > Dolby Digital

Audio > Dolby Digital > Decode

Audio > Dolby Digital > Dynamic Range Control > Normal

Audio > Dolby Digital > Dolby Surround Downmix

Audio > MPEG Audio > Demux

Audio > 48 ->44.1KHZ > High

Options > Process Priority > Normal

File > Save AVI  (Choose a name and place to save your movie.)

A Video Compression window will appear.  Select the type of movie compression you want.

Personally I choose: MS MPEG-4 3688 VI

Choosing any other type may require a codec, but that's a different article.  Click the OK button and wait.  This will take a few hours depending on your computer.  When the encoding process is done you will have two types, an AVI and a WAV.

Now that you have your WAV and AVI files, you need the program called TMPGEnc.  (VirtualDub is also a good program, but this article is oriented towards TMPGEnc.)

Open TMPGEnc:

Video source > Browse > (Select your video file)

Audio source > Browse > (Select your audio file)

Select the Setting buttons and see the below chart for the Video, Advanced, and Audio tabs.  The select the Start button and sit back and relax.

If you used my settings (in bold) on the chart, you will have an MPEG in a couple of hours that can fit on a 256 MB SD memory card.  Good Luck.


Settings for TMPGenc







Video
Really High Quality
Still Good Quality
Lower Quality
My Settings






Size & Pixels 320x192 320x144 240x160 208x128





Aspect Ratio 1:1 (VGA) 1:1 (VGA) 1:1 (VGA) 1:1: (VGA)





Frame Rate > 25 fps > 25 fps > 25 fps > 25 fps





Bit Rate 400 350 300 225





Motion
 
Search

Precision		 Highest Quality Highest Quality  Highest Quality  Highest Quality

Depending on your Pocket PC you may have to change the bit rate, size x pixel rate, or frame rate.  The lower you go with these values the lower the quality, but the file size will also lower.







Advanced
Standard
What I Use






Video Source Type Interlace Interlace





Source Aspect Ratio 16:9 525 (NTSC) 16:9 525 (NTSC)











Audio
Standard
What I Use






Channel Mode Stereo Mono





Bit Rate 96 kbits/sec 64 kbits/sec

It's only a Pocket PC.

Use mono audio - it will save some space.

If anyone has questions, corrections to my article, or a different way that he or she prefers to encode video to their handheld, e-mail me at waxycast@hotmail.com.

One last tip: don't use a USB card reader/writer when putting movies on your SD memory card.  It does not work.  You must use active sync with your Pocket PC.
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